Dog Days of Diapers

Happy 52nd post!

Today's before picture is a bit different from the norm...

This adorable little man is Brody. Brody and my buddy spent the weekend at the house and we all had a blast. As you can see though - Brody gets excited and has a bit of a bladder issue that necessitates a diaper. This particular type is a Huggies Swimmer. Growing up in a day care with a pool, I can tell you these things suck up anything and everything so they worked pretty well as a doggie diaper. However, his owner wasn't all that proud to bring Brody around in public with this particular fashion, so he came to me with a problem.

 

Problem: Bought doggie diapers at a pet store - not going to call out names or anything but they consider themselves smart about pets - and was unhappy with both the price (expensive) and the quality (fell apart in the dryer). As he's read my blog a few times and considered me someone of the crafty type (blushing), he asked for my assistance and I was certainly happy to help. So I got my supplies together and went for a test run before I go ahead and begin my Dog Days of Diapers business. *Note: don't get excited, I'm not selling these (unless you want to pay me in old dresses that I can redo. I'll take those) nor am I starting a business.*

 

First thing was first: fabric. I pawed through all my fabric that I bought off Craigslist. I was aiming for two things: something durable for the outside, and something soft for the inside. And not pink - his owner ain't raisin' no girl. I found two fantastic fabrics: a soft denim and a manly flannel piece. Luckily, I had a yard of each so I can make plenty of these.

 

I cut out a piece of each fabric and laid them on top of each other with right sides together, as such.

I then sewed up the sides. This was my first mistake, because my intention was to sew it like a pillow cover: sew up three sides, turn it inside out and then sew up the last side. Yeah, that didn't happen. Apparently I got on a role and was jamming out to my music that I didn't pay the slightest attention to my sewing up all four sides. The trusty seam ripper came out, I undid one of the sides and pulled the whole thing right side out. This was my second mistake. I realized I planned on putting binding around all the sides so having raw seams was not a big deal and sewing it inside out in the first place was a waste of time and just added bulk. Lesson learned.

Next I added elastic to the diaper, as it needed to hug him around the hips to stay put. I took 1/4" elastic, stretched it out, sewed down each end and then sewed it all down while having it stretched. This ensured it would scrunch all up when I stopped stretching it.

Next, I got out the single fold bias tape that I had never used, nor had any idea on how to go about sewing it. After a quick 10 minute YouTube search, I got my confidence and sewed it on there like a pro. If a pro messes up a lot.

Truth be told, this was a rather simple project. I learned quite a few new techniques and honed my elastic stitching skills, so I was pretty happy. Along with the first lesson learned with the seams, I also learned that for this project it would probably be a better idea to sew the elastic to the bias tape, and then sew the bias tape to the diaper. Putting it on the fabric was fine, but as soon as I attached the bias tape the elastic didn't scrunch up as much and I was worried it wouldn't hug him as it should.

Finished product: side view

Finished product: front view

 

The original diaper that I was working from had Velcro on the ends. This was where most of that quality issue stemmed. The Velcro came apart in the dryer and it was also not sticky after a few washes. So, along with it being a shy too short, Brody's owner was putting safety pins on the diaper to hold it together. Let's be honest: they call them safety pins but your fingers are never actually safe.

Once my model arrived, I sized him up and attached some snaps to the ends. This was my final lesson. I made the mistake of assuming attaching snaps was easy - line 'em up, hammer it down, call it a day. Yeah... no. I got too excited with the hammer for 3 of these things and ended up messing up the snap that it wouldn't close. Eventually, I got some snaps on there that were effective enough to see how the diaper would work. Next time, I'm going to try two different snaps - one set with heavy duty snaps that you hammer in, and the other with a set of snaps that you hand sew in. (Suggestions are welcome)

All in all, I think owner and dog were happy and comfortable, respectively. I was in luck because the diaper stayed in place and served its purpose. I'll be making many, many more of these so if any of them are groundbreaking, I'll be sure to post it.

All I have to say is: now who's smart for pets?! *Evil laugh*. Now get ready for the "awww!" inspiring picture:

Beach Baby

This week I was feeling a bit like I needed a vacation. My husband and I have decided to take a few days off of work just to do our own thing. I plan to spend my "mental health" days working on my tan and finally getting my hair cut. With vacation on the brain, I decided to remake a popular beach cover up that's been hanging around Pintrest - see this. The problem? That wrap costs 39.50. On sale. Hell with that! I bought this skirt for $1.50.

Alright yeah, I did a ghetto kind of picture. I risked my life for this, guys - I stood on a chair because I couldn't find a place to put my camera to get a better shot. Basically, it's a wrap skirt a la:

I had no idea what to do with this when I bought it. It's been sitting on my refashion rack for a good 6 or 7 months. Until I saw this idea and knew I had a gem.

First thing I did was cut off the ties for the wrap dress, like this.

Next, I took the corners and folded them down a bit. This is the point where I should of ironed but... "ain't nobody got time for that".

I pinned down the corners on either side and pinned about 1 inch in and sewed them down. This created my casing that I could use a safety pin to thread the ties that I had cut off through the casings on either side.

After the ties were threaded through the casings, it was just a matter of sewing the ends together to create the loops, and then rotating it so the seam was on the inside of the casing.

And just like that, I had myself a beach wrap for a buck fifty. Boom.

I do admit, with a better fabric it would drape a bit better and have a bit more "give" than the skirt, but it turned out to be a bit more modest than the Victoria Secret one (which, all in all, is not that hard to do.)

 

And the best part? I can class it up. Scenario: I'm at the beach, got me my cover up on and all of the sudden my husband offers to take me out for a nice dinner. I certainly don't say no to a nice dinner, so what do I do to make myself presentable? Slap a belt on it.

As always - comment away or throw an e-mail to thriftysew@gmail.com. Until next week!

 

Amateur Hour at the Sewing Machine

Happy Sunday Funday, folks :)

I worked on this project all afternoon for you guys. I've been getting a lot of questions of "is this normal?" and "does this happen to you?". I'm no professional, guys, and yes - it is safe to say that if it's happened to you, it's happened to me. So I put together a little video of things that I've not only said myself, but things that I'm sure you guys say as well. But ya know what? It's totally normal, and completely a part of the joy of sewing. I'm not afraid to make fun of myself because, when it is all said and done, the end result is usually  not that bad.

Announcing Announcements

Hey all! Got a bit of news to share - not sure if it's good or bad. That's for you to decide. Unfortunately I feel like I"e been selling you guys short on Thursdays. Lately I've been late, posting half-assed projects, yadda yadda yadda. I feel like posts have been full of excuses.

So, I'm changing my regular posting day from Thursday to Sundays - Sunday's Fun Day's, if you will. This will ensure that I don't rush the projects after I get home from work at 7 or 8 at night - and, you know, get dinner and sleep. It also helps that that'll give me Saturday to shop for refashions if I'm running low... which is currently the case.

So I will see ya'll on Sunday with my next refashion!!

Thrifting "Too Small"

It seems the theme of these last few weeks has been "what the hell?" I've had quite the streak of bad luck. It started with a bad massage (I know, I didn't think there was such a thing either), continued with a pretty extreme crisis at work, went on for a memorial for a passed friend, and ended with my cat falling out the bathroom window and running away.

Luckily, things are tending to get better. My back is swinging towards better, the crisis is unresolved but I haven't heard anything too bad come from it, the memorial was nice and I saw some old friends, and the cat was found after a few 20 minutes outdoors. Just goes to show - life throws some dumbass lemons, but you can at least turn them into something that will pass for lemonade. That's how it goes, right?

I also had quite the struggle with projects. I went to Salvation Army and, more bad luck, ended up picking up everything that was too small for me. It got me down, that's for sure. It took a very frank husband of mine to say "you make stuff. make this work". He doesn't take my excuses and - never tell him - I like that he doesn't.

So, the more I thought about it, the more excited I was about working on these projects. It's a pretty common problem, I think, to find items at a thrift store that you think will fit, but when you get it home and wash it... it doesn't. So, I thought I would show you a few ways to make this problem into a wearable solution.

I started out with this:

I am pretty long-waisted, so this jumper wasn't even CLOSE to fitting me lengthwise. You also don't see the back, but the back zipper was completely open because there was not a chance in hell this was going to fit around my chest.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process. I was taking them on my phone and, true to luck, have unfortunately lost all of the pictures I've taken today. So I'm going to try to use my words like a big girl.

First thing I did was cut up the leg seams to open up the jumper. I definitely didn't need to keep this pants or shorts, especially since its waist was way too short for mine.

Next - and I really didn't want to do this - I cut off the arms. I know, I know. But in all honesty, those little dainty armholes were certainly not fitting around my arms, so I needed all the give I could get. This helped the bodice fit perfectly, except the zipper didn't quite want to go all the way up. In fact, it started sweating only a few inches up in its travels. This wasn't going to quite work.

So I just took the zipper out. This left the back completely open and flapping in the breeze. I guess it's better to go bigger than smaller, right? I decided to use a scrap of lace that I had leftover and line the back hole with it. This left the two back flaps with something to latch on to, as well as a modesty panel so I didn't have to go bra-less. Win.

Next, I cut the legs off at the same length as the crotch and hemmed it up. In all truth - I was pretty surprised at the result. I did no measuring, I literally tore things apart in this dress, and I very haphazardly sewed everything because my back is bothering me too much to sit in front of a sewing machine for hours. This project took me about an hour overall, and that includes the time I spent drinking wine. Because, yes, wine is needed after weeks like this.

So? How did it come out? Check it for yourself:

I love that the neckline is the spotlight of the dress now, as opposed to the yards and yards of fabric all over.
Here's the back:

And, because I wasn't lying about the wine, and because I think this is a perfect weekend bbq day-drinking dress...

Hope you all have a fantastic week - get a glass of wine with me!